2022 Freedom Hill Vineyard, Coury Clone Pinot Noir

96 Points, Jeb Dunnuck

Site History: The vineyard was established in 1982 by the people who still own and manage it to this day: Dan and Helen Dusschee. While they may not have realized it at the time, they were settling onto a site destined to be one of the top Pinot Noir vineyards in the state of Oregon. Their rigorous and professional approach to the management of the vineyard has brought about that greatness, and even though the vineyard suffered through a scourge of phylloxera replantings, expansion of the site has shown that there is a distinct and indomitable terroir. Few non-estate vineyards in Oregon can reach as far back in history with regards to being bottled as a single vineyard designated wine as Freedom Hill Vineyard. Panther Creek Winery began designating the site in the late 80s. St. Innocent began doing so in the early 90s. In 2013 their son, Dustin, rejoined the farm and began taking over day-t0-day management operations. Even while expanding to slightly over 90 acres over the years, this vineyard remains a family owned, lived upon and operated venture, something that is becoming increasingly rare and, thus, that much more special in Oregon.

Site Characteristics: Freedom Hill Vineyard lies toward the eastern edge of the Coast Range Foothills. While associated geographically with the Eola Hills, the site lies south and west of the border of the Eola-Amity Hill Appellation outside of the town of Monmouth. The vineyard is planted on a marine sedimentary type of soil known as Bellpine. The vineyard is also located just south of the Van Duzer wind corridor which allows for more consistent average temperatures due to a lack of afternoon and evening offshore breezes rolling through. This site is known for powerful or, at least, extremely intense Pinot Noirs. Wines tend to be very dark in color and operate on the blue, purple, black end of the fruit spectrum. Tannin structure can be impressive. This vineyard has the capacity to produce some of the most extraordinary wine made in the state.

The Block: Coury Clone Pinot Noir has a fascinating background tale that is literally rooted in the earliest history of the Oregon wine industry. The short version of the story is that Charles Coury submitted his master’s thesis for cool climate winegrowing to the University of California at Davis while studying in Alsace, France in 1964. He brought vine cuttings back to the U.S. when he returned to Oregon that summer. From this small and straightforward beginning, the plantings and legend of the Coury Clone begins. For a full and detailed account of this very, very interesting agricultural story that was lost to history for some time, please go to The Price of Pinot’s website (http://www.princeofpinot.com/article/1214/) and read for yourself. This section of the vineyard was planted in 2000 and the cuttings came from the 1972 section of Coury Clone at Hyland Vineyard. What all this amounts to is that this is one of the most fascinating single vineyard bottlings we make on a yearly basis.

Farming Practices: Since 2013 Freedom Hill Vineyard has been moving diligently and consistently from conventional farming practices to organic farming. While not 100% turned to organic practices it is closer to that than it is to so-called “sustainable farming.” Great attention has been paid to specific cover cropping, foliar feeding and cultivation. The result is a healthier vineyard with a greater range of blocks producing single vineyard quality style wines.  

Picking Dates, Tonnages, Tons/Acre: October 10th; 3.27 tons (3.27 tons/acre).

Vinification: For this bottling there were 2 fermenters, one a 2.5 ton fermenter and the other a 1.75 ton container. The former was done at just over 50% whole cluster and the latter with 100% whole clusters.

Winemaking: Fermentations were managed by a combination of pumpovers early in the process and exclusively prior to fermentation beginning as well as pigeages to ensure gentle handling, extraction and delicate tannin construction. Cold soaks were 4 days. Full fermentation from beginning to pressing was at 18 days. 24-48 hour settling prior to being racked to barrel. All wines on full lees until assemblage for bottling. Bottled without fining or filtration.

Barrels: For this 9-barrel bottling, 2 new barrels including Cadus and Billon. Past that the wine was a combination of almost exclusively once used barrels with just a single neutral barrel to round it all out. 3 of the barrels come from the 100% whole cluster fermentation, while the other 6 are from the 50% whole cluster lot.

Notes: Freedom Hill Vineyard is the most fascinating example of the plants rebound from the April frost in 2022. The damage by the frost looked as extensive as any vineyard we received fruit from. However, the recovery and vitality of the secondary shoots was unprecedented. Freedom Hill not only experienced what ended up being their largest crop in the site’s 41-year history, they hit quality levels on par with the best vintages we have received from them (2012, 2106, 2021). The line-up of the 6 bottlings of Pinot Noir is always expected to be extremely high given the nature of the vineyard and the quality of farming and fruit we see there. In 2022 these wines run counter to the easier countenance that most of our Pinot Noirs show. These are especially darkly pigmented, densely textured, concentrated yet precise and structured in ways that most normal domestic Pinot Noirs simply cannot achieve without being drying or hollow. These are all exceptional examples of their respective bottlings and wines that should not be missed.

Coury Clone is definitely something that leads with the nose first and foremost. To ensure that this feature is as prominent and beautiful as possible we have been using 35-100% whole cluster fermentations since our first vintage working with the fruit in 2012. We used 50-100% whole clusters again in 2022. It works, and in excellent vintages like 2022 the aromatics are especially intoxicating and unique. This bottling shows the flipside of Freedom Hill Vineyard which is known for power, intensity, sap-laden wines with lots of structure. This is graceful and aromatic, and while intense, it is discreetly so. Tannins are sneaky in this wine, rising up in the back of the wine to create the necessary balance and give the wine length and dimension. Amongst the staff at Patricia Green Cellars this particular bottling is a distinct favorite.

Tasting Note: Please be aware that I am loathe to write tasting notes on our wines. Each person has an individual palate and therefore unique experiences with every wine. Also, what a person has tasted in their life and what they enjoy informs them on what a wine is like. If I tell you a wine tastes like cherries and you either have never had a cherry or don’t like cherries what I am saying is irrelevant information. That being said I have been asked to include my thoughts on each wine (since we have so many).

The 2022 Freedom Hill Vineyard, Coury Clone Pinot Noir is the 10th bottling we have done since we began with the vineyard in 2012. This is a monumental version of this bottling, which is saying something given the standard this set from 2012 (a wine with 15-20 years, minimum, remaining). This displays the tea like characteristics this clone is known for, running through a range of Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe. These aromatics mix with the fruit that creeps over the red-fruited zone into just enough black fruit to create tension in the mid-palate. This bottling always has a sneaky level of tannin to it and the 100% whole cluster (side note; the other time we did 100% whole cluster with the Coury Clone block we bottled it as the Perspicacious Cuvée which tells you a lot about both this wine and that wine this year) adds a level of structural dimension that pulls all the fruit and tea onto a super-long finish. Dynamic and exciting wine for sure.